noxious

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈnɑkʃəs/ UK /ˈnɒkʃəs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant

Noxious fumes forced the workers to evacuate the plant.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · harmful, poisonous, or very... harmful toxic poisonous injurious deleterious pernicious unwholesome

Opposites

harmless innocuous wholesome benign

Word family

Derived forms noxiousnessnoxiously

Related forms obnoxious nocuous innocuous

Simplified etymology

Noxious, recorded since late Middle English, comes from the Latin word family of nocere, “to hurt or injure.” It accordingly means “harmful.”

Etymology

From Latin noxius ('harmful'), from noxa ('harm, injury'), related to nocere ('to harm').

noxius Latin nocere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# noxious

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈnɑkʃəs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈnɒkʃəs/

## Meanings
1. harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant

## Examples
- Noxious fumes forced the workers to evacuate the plant.

## Synonyms
- harmful
- toxic
- poisonous
- injurious
- deleterious
- pernicious
- unwholesome

## Antonyms
- harmless
- innocuous
- wholesome
- benign

## Derived Forms
- noxiousness
- noxiously

## Related Forms
- obnoxious
- nocuous
- innocuous

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: noxius
- Root: nocere

## Etymology
From Latin noxius ('harmful'), from noxa ('harm, injury'), related to nocere ('to harm').

## AI Etymology
Noxious comes from Latin noxius ('harmful'), from noxa ('harm, injury'), related to nocere ('to harm'). The etymological trail includes Latin noxius and Latin nocere. As an adjective, noxious means harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant. The same family is visible in derived forms such as noxiousness and noxiously and related forms such as obnoxious, nocuous, and innocuous.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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